This description relates to channel switching performed by a receiver configured for digital broadcasting.
A digital broadcasting system, e.g., a digital multimedia broadcasting system, can transmit and/or receive, e.g., video data, audio data, text data, and any combination thereof. The digital broadcasting system may transmit and/or receive data using code division multiplexing (CDM), where CDM refers to a technique in which each channel transmits its bits as a coded channel-specific sequence of pulses. The digital broadcasting may also use other forms of multiplexing, such as time division multiplexing.
A transmission stream transmitted through each CDM channel includes transmission stream packets, each of which having a header with a packet identifier (PID). Thus, the digital broadcasting system may transmit a plurality of data packets. A data packet may include a header and a payload, and the header may include a packet identifier (PID).
Since each transmission stream can include several programs, the relation between the programs included in each transmission stream and video/audio data constituting each program may have to be defined. The relation may be defined by a program specification information (PSI) table. The PSI table may include a program association table (PAT) and a program map table (PMT). The PMT may include PID information of, for example, video data packets, audio data packets, and text data packets included in a specific program.
A transmission system for digital broadcasting may divide a broadcasting bandwidth into a plurality of CDM channels, and a plurality of programs may be transmitted via a CDM channel. Therefore, channel switching among the plurality of programs may have to be performed.